Rochester ranks No. 1 on the Housing Market Recovery Index

Rochester topped the list of markets with the strongest signs of recovery in the housing market, a national housing data index released Monday shows.

The Housing Market Recovery Index, released by RealtyTrac, said Rochester ranked so well due to below-average unemployment, underwater and distressed sales percentages, combined with above-average drops in foreclosure activity and increases in home prices.

In addition to Upstate New York, other areas showing strong recovery are in southwest Florida and the Bay Area of northern California, while markets in northern Maryland, southeast Pennsylvania and downstate Illinois are lagging the furthest behind in the recovery.

"The U.S. housing market has clearly shifted to recovery mode over the past 18 months, with home prices consistently rising and foreclosures falling closer to pre-housing bubble levels," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, in a statement. "Still symptoms of the distress that plagued the housing market over the past seven years continue to linger, particularly in the form of a high percentage of underwater borrowers and distressed sales.

“This lingering distress is creating an uneven pace of recovery across different local markets."

The index was calculated based on seven different factors relating to the health of the real estate market: unemployment rate, underwater loans percentage, foreclosure activity percent change from peak, distressed sales percent of total sales, institutional investors share of total sales, cash purchases share of total sales, and median home price percent change from bottom.

Those seven factors were indexed for each market with national averages as a baseline, and all seven indexes were averaged to calculate a total recovery index.

RealtyTrac ranked 100 major U.S. metros based on this total recovery index, but data is available for more than 900 metro areas nationwide. California-based RealtyTrac is operated by Renwood RealtyTrac LLC.